Photo by Elizabeth Nolan
Ajibola Fabusuyi’s new publication (jointly published with Ezekiel Olagunju) Leseverstehen für Deutschlernende was published in January 2023 by Fasco Publishers, Ibadan.
Ajibola is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Germanic Studies program in Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies. About the book, he says:
“The text is a result of several years of experience in teaching and research in German-as-a-Foreign Language (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) and specifically designed as a useful resource for Reading Comprehension for learners in the niveaus A1-B1. With numerous comprehension passages and questions, the text equips learners with several possible ways of approaching a text and answering comprehension questions. The text is based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (Gemeinsamer europäischer Referenzrahmen für Sprachen) and is a critical resource for preparing for German proficiency examinations such as Goethe Zertifikat and others.”
Ajibola’s ongoing PhD thesis explores the idea of Black becoming in Black German autobiographical non-fictional cultural texts and film through Sankofa philosophy — a cultural aesthetic that centers on Black life, dislocation, and diasporicity in the West through a backward-forward glance.
“My work is inspired by Michelle Wright’s Becoming Black (2004), which turns to Black feminist and queer methods to highlight the contributions of queer diasporic Black women in liberating Black discourse on subjectivity from sexist male-oriented postcolonial viewpoints,” Ajibola says. “While Wright centres Western intellectual traditions, however, I will turn to Sankofa philosophy to account for Black German feminist subjectivity on the terms of a Black African intellectual tradition.”
Ajibola is also an advocate for active workspace behaviour for members of the academic community. He recently won a Move UBC grant to support his project “Read Write Walk.” The grant will be used to secure a treadmill desk for the Graduate and Postdoctoral Room in the CENES Department to encourage graduate students in active reading and writing culture, and to minimize physiological problems associated with the constant use of electronic devices for research activities.
